Have you heard the latest? The Internal Revenue Service has entered into a secret deal with an atheist group to monitor pastors all over America and squelch their political speech!

That’s the latest paranoid fantasy from the Religious Right. The truth, as is often the case, is much more mundane.

Before we get to the meat of things, some background: A lot of us in the separation of church and state community have been frustrated over the blatant partisan political activity that some churches (on the right and the left) engage in. Read more

An Alabama official wants to display the Ten Commandments outside a county courthouse, and he thinks he can justify the location of said monument by arguing that the famous list of biblical laws simply isn’t religious.

Instead, said Jackson County Commissioner Tim Guffey (R), he just wants people to know the supposed basis behind America’s most famous documents. Read more

Back in the 1990s, some Religious Right activists in Virginia got the bright idea to begin attacking America’s public libraries. The idea was to demonize public libraries in the same way that public schools have been successfully demonized by fundamentalists in some parts of the country.

The effort, dubbed “Family Friendly Libraries,” fell flat. Americans simply weren’t interested in allowing a bunch of far-right Christian fundamentalists to determine what books they or their children could read. Read more

OK, now we’ve done it. Those of us who advocate things like separation of church and state, secular government, LGBT rights and self-determination when it comes to issues of sexuality have really torqued off the Religious Right – so much so that some of them are thinking of going into exile. Read more

The prospect of a satanic “black mass” in Oklahoma City’s CitySpace Theater has moved one Catholic commentator to call for the state to enforce its archaic blasphemy laws. In an editorial for the National Catholic Reporter, Phyllis Zagano cites the mass’ tradition of stomping on the sacred host as justification for her argument. Read more

For the second year in a row Philadelphia’s public schools are struggling to open on time, and it appears deep budget cuts – including money siphoned for a voucher-like program – are to blame. Read more

Every couple of years, a story surfaces in the media about Religious Right leaders and their latest whine-fest. The script goes like this: They’re not happy because they still haven’t gotten everything they want. Read more